Dog Bite Prevention: Effect of a Short Educational Intervention for Preschool Children

This study aimed to investigate whether preschool children can learn how to interpret dogs' behaviours, with the purpose of helping avoid dog bites. Three- to five-year-old children (N = 70) were tested on their ability to answer questions about dogs' emotional states before and after part...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2015-08, Vol.10 (8), p.e0134319-e0134319
Main Authors: Lakestani, Nelly, Donaldson, Morag L
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal behavior
Animal bites
Animals
Behavior, Animal
Bites
Bites (Injuries)
Bites and Stings - prevention & control
Child
Child, Preschool
Children
Children & youth
Comparative analysis
Developmental psychology
Dogs
Dogs - psychology
Education
Emergency medical care
Emotions
Group dynamics
Humans
Injury prevention
Intervention
Judgment
Learning
Pets
Preschool children
Prevention
Prevention programs
Psychology
Studies
Training
Wild animals
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Summary:This study aimed to investigate whether preschool children can learn how to interpret dogs' behaviours, with the purpose of helping avoid dog bites. Three- to five-year-old children (N = 70) were tested on their ability to answer questions about dogs' emotional states before and after participating in either an educational intervention about dog behaviour (intervention group) or an activity about wild animals (control group). Children who had received training about dog behaviour (intervention group) were significantly better at judging the dogs' emotional states after the intervention compared to before. The frequency with which they referred to relevant behaviours in justifying their judgements also increased significantly. In contrast, the control group's performance did not differ significantly between the two testing times. These results indicate that preschool children can be taught how to correctly interpret dogs' behaviours. This implies that incorporating such training into prevention programmes may contribute to reducing dog bite incidents.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0134319